LXX. CORYLA^CE^: QUE'RCUS. 



87] 



its leaves and general appearance in different climates. This difference is so 

 extraordinary, "that nearly all the botanists who have written on the American 

 oaks have supposed it to be two species. In the Southern States, it forms 

 a noble tree, 80 ft. high, with a trunk 4 or 3 feet in diameter ; while in New 

 Jersey the tree is never above 30 ft. high, with a trunk only 4 or 5 inches 

 thick. The bark is thick, black, and deeply furrowed ; and the wood is reddish 

 and coarse-grained, with open pores, like that of the red oak. The leaves are 

 also extremely different ; on the trees in 

 the south, they are falcate, like those mjtg. 

 1386., copied from the plate of this tree 

 in the North American Sijlva, i. t. 23. ; in 



1586. Q. falckta. 



15S7. Q. falcata. 



New Jersey, the leaves are three-lobed (like those shown in Jig. 1387. b, 

 from the Histoire des Ckenes), except a few on the summit, which are 

 slighth' falcated. Generally the lower branches of all trees of this species, 

 growing in moist and shaded situations, have their leaves trilobed ; while 

 those on the upper branches are falcated, with their lobes even more arched 

 than those in J?g. 1386. This remarkable difference led the elder Michaux 

 to describe the specimens which he had found growing in very cold bad land 

 as Q. triloba ; and on the young shoots of these specimens he frequently found 

 leaves deeply denticulated or lobed, like those of Q. rubra or Q. coccinea, as 

 represented at a in Jig. 1387. The acorns are small, round, brown, and 

 contained in slightly scaly, shallow, top-shaped cups, supported on short 

 peduncles : they resemble those of Q. Banlsten', and, like them, preserve the 

 power of germination for a long time. 



j ^ 18. Q. tincto'ria Willd. The Quercitron, or Dyer's, Oak. 



I Jiictilification. Willd. Sp. Pi., 4. p. 444. ; Pursh Fl. Amer. Sept., 2. p. 629. 



, Synunymes. Q. virgini^na, &c., Pluk. Phyt. t. 54. f. 5. ; Q. discolor Willd. Arb. 274. ; the black 

 Oak, Amer. ; Chene des Teinturiers, Fr. 

 Engravings. Michx. Quer., t. 24. ; the plate of this tree in Arb. Brit., 1st edit., vol. vii. ; and our 

 i ^.1588. 



Spec. Char., ^c. Leaves downy beneath, obovate-oblong, dilated, widely 

 J sinuated : lobe short, obtuse, slightly toothed, bristle-pointed. Calyx of 

 1 the fruit flat underneath. Nut globose. (Willd.) A large deciduous tree. 

 United States generally. Height 80 ft. to 100 ft. Introduced in 1800. 



Varieties. Michaux, in his Chines de I'Amerique, gives the two following forms 

 I of this species : 



i Q. t. 1 angidusa Michx. Q. americana Pluk. Aim. p. 309. ; Q. velu- 

 tina Lam. Diet. ; Q. tinctoria Bart. Trav. p. 37. ; the Champlain 

 Oak. Leaves smooth, lobed with angular lobes. Cup top-shaped. 

 Nut globose, and depressed at the summit. Shores of Lake 



3k 4 



